[56]. If Adam represented Eve (his rib) in the covenant, she did not fall till he fell.
[57]. The compilers of the LXX. seem to have understood the words in this sense, when then render the text in Gen. ii. 17. η δ αν ημερα φαγητε απ αυτου θαγατω απο θανεισθε.
[58]. Τυπος, the Type.
[59]. Εφ᾽ ω.
[60]. The words are, ως δι ενος παραπτωματος, εις παντας ανθρωπους εις κατακριμα. The word Judgment, though not in the original, is very justly supplied in our translation, from verse 16. or else, as the learned Grotius observes, the word εγενετο might have been supplied; and so the meaning is, Res processit in condemnationem. And J. Capellus gives a very good sense of the text, when he compares Adam as the head, who brought death into the world, with Christ by whom life is obtained. His words are these: Quemadmodum omnes homines, qui condemnantur, reatum suum contraxerant, ab una unius hominis offensa; sic & quotquot vivificantur, absolutionem suam obtinuerunt ab una unius hominis obedientia.
[61]. The word κατακριμα is used in scripture, in a forensic sense, in those places of the New Testament, where it is found: Thus ver. 16. of this chapter, and chap. viii. 1. And accordingly it signifies a judgment unto condemnation; as also do those words, the sense whereof has an affinity to it, in Rom. viii. 34. τις ο κατακρινων; and also ακατακριτος, as in Acts xvi. 37. and chap. xxii. 25. So that, according to the construction of the word, though κριμα signifies judicium in general, κατακριμα signifies judicium adversus aliquem, or condemnatio.
[62]. That mankind are born and live in sin, maybe collected from various sources of argument; by matter of fact, none are found free from, who are capable of actual guilt, by the evils and death which a just God would not otherwise inflict; by the ideas of the ancients who speak of a degeneration from a golden, to an iron age, by the general practice of offering sacrifice, which is an acknowment of guilt, by the testimony of the heathens, that evil example has a preponderating influence over good, by the historical account of the fall of man in the scriptures, by their numerous testimonies that none are righteous before God or can be justified by their obedience to his laws, by the confessions of the saints, by the necessity of repentance in all, by the propriety of prayer for the pardon of sin, by Christ’s example of daily prayer which contains such a petition, by the necessity of faith that we may please God, by man’s unwillingness to be reconciled to God, and rejection of all the spiritual good things offered, and contempt of divine threatnings; and above all other proofs, by the coming and suffering of Christ.
[63]. The covenant of grace was from eternity, and implied his innocence.
[64]. This is not only agreeable to many instances contained in scripture, but it has been acknowledged to be just by the very heathen, as agreeable to the law of nature and nations. Thus one says: Sometimes a whole city is punished for the wickedness of one man: Thus Hesiod, πολλακι και ξυμπασα πολις κακου ανδρος επαυρει; and Horace says, Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi: And one observes, that it was the custom of several cities of Greece, to inflict the same punishment on the children of tyrants, as their fathers had done on others: In Græcis civitatibus liberi tyrannorum suppressis illis, eodem supplicio afficiuntur. Vid. Cicer. Epist. ad Brut. XV. & Q. Curt. Lib. VI. speaks of a law observed among the Macedonians; in which, traiterous conspiracies against the life of the prince were punished, not only in the traitors themselves, but in their near relations, Qui regi infidiati essent, illi cum cognatis & propinquis suis morte afficerentur.
[65]. See Quest. xxvii.